Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Silicon Valley Backlash is Heating Up
By Eric Newcomer September 15, 2017, 4:00 AM PDT
Hi all, it’s Eric. Big tech is falling out of political
favor. This week, BuzzFeed's Ben Smith convincingly argued that the tides are
turning against Google, Facebook and Amazon. The article, “There's Blood in the
Water in Silicon Valley,” is worth a read.
As Ben points out, Steve Bannon is leading the charge from the right,
calling for Google and Facebook to be regulated like public utilities. Bernie
Sanders is helping to push the anti-tech charge from the left. Populists on
both wings want to kneecap big tech.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) for the technology giants,
there isn't a coherent, unified critique of their behavior. The grievances come
in many forms and from many camps. They include: ·Simmering 99 percenters angry over tech's
growing power ·Mounting antitrust concerns ·Animus from ad-dependent media companies ·Bias charges from right-wingers without a seat
at the table …

British supermarket offers 'finger vein' payment in
worldwide first
By Katie Morley, consumer affairs editor 20 SEPTEMBER
2017 • 1:04AM
A UK supermarket has become the first in the world to let
shoppers pay for groceries using just the veins in their fingertips.
Customers at the Costcutter store, at Brunel University
in London, can now pay using their unique vein pattern to identify themselves.
The firm behind the technology, Sthaler, has said it is
in "serious talks" with other major UK supermarkets to adopt hi-tech
finger vein scanners at pay points across thousands of stores.
It works by using infrared to scan people's finger veins
and then links this unique biometric map to their bank cards. Customers’ bank
details are then stored with payment provider Worldpay, in the same way you can
store your card details when shopping online. Shoppers can then turn up to the
supermarket with nothing on them but their own hands and use it to make
payments in just three …

High-speed Hyperloop track ready for first trial run
By Cara McGoogan 7 APRIL 2017 • 10:38AM
The first tests of Elon Musk's revolutionary high-speed
transport system could begin soon after Hyperloop One, one of 12 companies
competing to make the idea a reality, completed its test track.
The company has finished work on its 500 metre long
testing tunnel, which is situated in the Nevada desert, near Las Vegas, and has
a diametre of 3.3 metres. It is expected to run initial trials on the
near-supersonic speed train in the first half of this year.
Hyperloop One announced the news alongside 11 proposed
routes for the super-fast transport, all of which are in the US. The longest
proposed route is 1,152 miles from Cheyenne to Houston and the shortest 64
miles from Boston to Providence.
It would take an average car 17 hours to travel the
longest route, which would be cut down to just an hour and 45 minutes on the
Hyperloop.
The radical mode of transport, which could also travel
from …